Hybrid war hyenas tearing Brazil apart – Pepe Escobar

The gloomy and repulsive night when the female president of the 7th largest economy in the world was the prey of choice fed to a lynch mob of hyenas in a drab, provincial Circus Maximus will forever live in infamy.

By 367 votes for and 137 against, the impeachment/coup/regime change-light drive against Dilma Rousseff cleared the Brazilian Congressional circus and will now go to the Senate, where a “special commission” will be set up. If approved, Rousseff will then be sidelined for 180 days and a low-rent tropical Brutus, Vice-President Michel Temer, will ascend to power until the Senate’s final verdict.

This lowly farce should serve as a wake-up call not only to the BRICS but to the whole Global South. Who needs NATO, R2P (“responsibility to protect”) or “moderate rebels” when you can get your regime change just by tweaking a nation’s political/judicial system?

The Brazilian Supreme Court has not analyzed the merit of the matter – at least not yet. There’s no solid evidence anywhere Rousseff committed a “crime of responsibility”; she did what every American President since Reagan has done – not to mention leaders all across the world: along with her vice-president, the lowly Brutus, Rousseff got slightly creative with the federal budget’s numbers.

The coup has been sponsored by a certified crook, president of the lower house Eduardo Cunha; reportedly the holder of several illegal accounts in Switzerland, listed in the Panama Papers and under investigation by the Supreme Court. Instead of lording over near-illiterate hyenas in a racist, largely crypto-fascist circus, he should be behind bars. It beggars belief that the Supreme Court has not launched legal action against Cunha. The secret of his power over the circus is a gigantic corruption scheme lasting many years, featuring corporations contributing to his and others’ campaign financing.

And that’s the beauty of a regime change-light/color revolution of Hybrid War when staged in such a dynamically creative nation such as Brazil. The hall of mirrors yields a political simulacrum that would have driven deconstructionists Jean Baudrillard and Umberto Eco, if alive, green with envy; a Congress crammed with fools/patsies/traitors/crooks, some of whom are already being investigated for corruption, has conspired to depose a president who is not under any formal corruption investigation – and has not committed any “crime of responsibility”.

The neoliberal restoration

Still, without a popular vote, the massively rejected tropical Brutus twins, Temer and Cunha, will find it impossible to govern, even though they would perfectly incarnate the project of the immensely arrogant and ignorant Brazilian elites; a neoliberal triumph, with Brazilian “democracy” trampled down six feet under.

It’s impossible to understand what happened at the Circus Maximus this Sunday without knowing there’s a gaggle of Brazilian political parties that are seriously threatened by the non-stop overspill of the Car Wash corruption investigation. To ensure their survival, Car Wash must be “suspended”; and it will, under the bogus “national unity” proposed by lowly Brutus Temer.

But first, Car Wash must produce a high-profile scalp. And that has to be Lula in jail – compared to which the crucifixion of Rousseff is an Aesop fable. Corporate media, led by the noxious Globo empire, would hail it as the ultimate victory, and nobody would care about Car Wash’s enforced retirement.

The 54 million-plus who voted for Rousseff’s reelection in 2014 voted wrong. The overall “project” is a government without vote and without people; a Brazilian-style parliamentary system, without bothering with pesky “elections” and crucially, including very “generous” campaign financing flexibility not bound to incriminate powerful companies/corporations.

In a nutshell, the ultimate aim is to perfectly “align” the Brazilian Executive, Legislative, Judiciary and corporate media interests. Democracy is for suckers. Brazilian elites remote controlling the hyenas know very well that if Lula runs again in 2018, he will win. And Lula has already warned; he won’t buy any “national unity” crap; he’ll be back in the streets fighting whatever illegitimate government pops up.

We’re now open for plundering

As it stands, Rousseff runs the risk of becoming the first major casualty of the NSA-originated, two-year-long Car Wash investigation. The President, admittedly an incompetent economic manager and lacking the right stuff of a master politician, believed that Car Wash – which practically prevented her from governing – would not reach her because she is personally honest. Yet Car Wash’s not so hidden agenda was always regime change. Who cares if in the process the nation is left on the verge of being controlled exactly by many of those indicted by the anti-corruption drive?

Lowly Brutus Temer – a vanity case version of Argentina’s Macri – is the perfect conduit for the implementation of regime change. He represents the powerful banking lobby, the powerful agribusiness lobby and the powerful federation of industries in Brazil’s economic leader, the state of Sao Paulo.

The neo-developmentalist project for Latin America – uniting at least some of the local elites, invested in developing internal markets, in association with the working classes – is now dead, because what may be defined as sub-hegemonic, or peripheral, capitalism is mired in crisis after the 2008 Wall Street-provoked debacle. What’s left is just neoliberal restoration. TINA (“there is no alternative”). This implies, in the Brazilian case, the savage reversion of Lula’s legacy; social policies, technological policies, the drive to globally expand large, competitive Brazilian companies, more public universities, better salaries.

In a message to the nation, Brutus Temer admitted as much; “hope” after impeachment will be absolutely swell for “foreign investment”, as in let them plunder the colony at will; back to the trademark history of Brazil since 1500.

So Wall Street, US Big Oil and the proverbial “American interests” win this round at the circus – thanks to the, once again proverbial, vassal/comprador elites. Chevron execs are already salivating with the prospect of laying their hands on the pre-salt oil deposits; that was already promised by a trusted vassal in the Brazilian opposition.

Pepe Escobar is an independent geopolitical analyst. He writes for RT, Sputnik and TomDispatch, and is a frequent contributor to websites and radio and TV shows ranging from the US to East Asia. He is the former roving correspondent for Asia Times Online. Born in Brazil, he’s been a foreign correspondent since 1985, and has lived in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, Washington, Bangkok and Hong Kong. Even before 9/11 he specialized in covering the arc from the Middle East to Central and East Asia, with an emphasis on Big Power geopolitics and energy wars. He is the author of “Globalistan” (2007), “Red Zone Blues” (2007), “Obama does Globalistan” (2009) and “Empire of Chaos” (2014), all published by Nimble Books. His latest book is “2030“, also by Nimble Books, out in December 2015.

The Essential Saker II: Civilizational Choices and Geopolitics / The Russian challenge to the hegemony of the AngloZionist Empire

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40 Comments

Your c
omme
nt..Having read many of Pepe’s pieces through the years,this one strikes me as defeatist, weary.Maybe bcos he’s Brazilian.Having tried his best to educate, inform and to warn against the ‘Empire of chaos’,maybe he starting to wonder if it’s all in vain.

One can only hope that the people of Brazil muster the strength, insight, and leadership to expose, understand, and beat back this plot and stand behind honest leaders who are genuine patriots, working for the future of Brazil and not for elites and foreign interests.

Bravo, Pepe!!
Is Glenn Greenwald an ally of any value in this fight? AFter all, he lives in Brazil, is practically a de facto Brazilian.
Katherine

Nothing at The INtercept is opening up for me.
I found some time ago that I was unable to get anything to open up at The Intercept.
In fact, this site is also very slow now.
I do have an old computer, but still, The Intercept was opening up some months ago. . .
Computers leave me puzzled . . .
Katherine

You should install a VPN plugin on your internet browser, I’d recommend the hola plugin for Firefox…there are also several other paid but rather affordable for macs, phones and tablets, it basically tricks the site you are visiting by masking your original IP
Hope this helps

Glenn Greenwald is an ally. He has been showing the ridiculousness of it all: extremely corrupt congressmen impeaching an honest president. Even though the government has corruption problems, much of these problems are traced to the same corrupt congressmen who are bringing down the president.

In someways Brazil has many of the same issues as Russia. But in my opinion, there is a psychological difference that is essential. Whatever the current situation, Russians know that Russia has an important role in the world. Russia was a world power (during Soviet times and before the revolution) and Russians know that they can, in theory at least, do anything any other country does. In Brazil, in practice, there are only Atlanticists, even when someone is a “Sovereignist”, (such as the current government), they are too weak and scared to change anything. The elites are completely aligned with the AngloZionists and so is most of the middle class. The rest are just too busy trying to survive.

The elites just follow the instructions from the empire and the middle class is too ignorant and arrogant to see any other alternative to being a colony. They just try to collect the crumbs that fall from the parasitic rich that Brazil has in abundance.

Rather than dwell more on the gutting of Brazil and ending for the foreseeable future of any global peace possibilities, someone has to get Veroufakis to Putin and Sergei Galzyev so Veroufakis can tell them off the cuff, as he does so brilliantly, how to save the Russian economy from the misadventures of their main, US meddled with, bank. Dijsselboem, the Dutch appointed, not elected, leader,as Veroufakis pointed out, is showing the rage of the US coddled Netherlands elite who have been carefully US chosen to lead the EU..and each separate country of the golden twenty eight. 150% US surveillance is perfect for choosing the most obedient leaders to slip surripticiously into place while no-one is watching, but me, and, Pepe, Alexander, Lavelle and Sofie..etc, I forget the other names, are many, all on rt.com.

The need for speed is because the US is rushing to declare more wars that cannot be stopped once started so when the next world war President steps into place, blowing stuff and humans up already in active mode can just be martially increased..no biggie. Just more gore. Never shown on the cover of the New York Times in colour. The takeover od all South America is in the works after the impeachment vote of an innocent leader.

Something is being planned to punish, effectively and clearly, the Netherlanders for so enraging the Pentagon for denying Ukraine EU space! It will not be another planeload of Dutch passengers, but more ‘one by one’ eliminations that will cause humiliating revulsion that can never be assuaged…or, resolved. US intelligence services love Revenge! Engineer it’s appearance and then humiliation exquisitely carefully. Sometimes months later, the lights, light! The way the insights about MH17 appeared, one by one.

I don’t think you need people to denounce this; you need to get Dilma and her allies to contemplate what Fernando said in the post below. Politics and war are closely related. And “fight” doesn’t mean get a million people to go to a demonstration. It means to neutralize the enemy. Arrest them for tax fraud or whatever. Is it really possible that the oligarchs against her haven’t broken a thousand laws?

My bet is some of her enemies would have stopped their media onslaught if the alternative was going to jail.

I agree with you that she should neutralize the enemy. But she’s either a genius (and in this case, she’s got little time left for her final genius movement) or she’s a moron, like Fernando said. Not only her, but Lula before her failed to recognize the always present threats. Instead of acting strategically, they played a foolish game of acting “democratically” even on matters where the Constitution gave them full powers to, say, appoint the Prosecutor General or Judges in the Supreme Court. The ones who could help secure the institutional stability. Beautiful in theory, naive and foolish in WAR.

And yes, the vast majority of the perpetrators are accused or somewhat implicated in fraud and crimes. And that’s precisely the reason why the went after her: she allowed and promoted the investigations, but failed to protected herself from the revenge of the, mostly very conservative, prosecutors, judges and the media.

Just as an example, Eduardo Cunha, president of the lower house and the sponsor of the impeachment had been charged with crimes in both the Supreme Court and the Legislative Ethical Committee way before he was able to accept Dilma’s impeachment. Had the Supreme Court done its constitutional job in time, none of this would be happening.

This government had good heart, but was too naive and clueless to understand the grander scheme of things, thus completely unable to protect itself. And here I envy the Russians that have Putin at the helm.

Still, if enough countries denounced this coup, those thugs would have a hard time seeing it through. They would immediately lose most of their popular support if this is being called what it really is by the international community: a coup!

Agree they should go to jail, the only problem is: they won’t. The STF (Superior Tribunal Federal) is too slugish and IMO also “covered” by the bribes, corruption and favoritism of an elite class. It’s revolting and agreeing with what mister Escobar said “Who needs NATO, R2P (“responsibility to protect”) or “moderate rebels” when you can get your regime change just by tweaking a nation’s political/judicial system?”

One would think that after the Ukraine Color Revolution (coup) that governments Worldwide would have taken stern actions to prevent foreign states from undermining them. But from this it appears some refuse to “get the message”. I suppose its a lot like Putin said in that Q&A ,when someone is determined to drown you can’t stop them.Maybe the next targeted government will learn the lesson. We’ll just have to wait and see.

As a Brazilian reader and admirer of the Saker, it’s kinda sad to read these kind of articles here. I can fully understand the kind of point of view a foreigner could have about the whole situation. From a foreign relations POV, Latin America stands out as a region that resists to Washington hegemony, and seeks a multipolar world order, like Russia and China. Because of that, people in the Saker community tend to empathize with Latin American governments. However, foreign police and internal affairs are two very different subjects. The current Brazilian government could be praised by its foreign policies, but regarding internal affairs, it’s one of the most corrupts in history, paid heavy propines to Congressmen, pillaged state owned companies such as Petrobras for private interests, and has thrown the economy into a recession.

One thing people in The Saker community should be aware of is that there is an organization called “Foro de São Paulo” (FSP), established right after the fall of the USSR. The FSP was an attempt by the socialist dictatorship in Cuba to establish a network of support inside Latin America for communist/socialist parties, since their soviet subsidies ceased to exist. Their main connection in Brazil was the Labour Party (PT), led by “Lula”. Keep in mind that many key people in PT, including former chief of Staff José Dirceu, party leader Ruy Falcão and current president Dilma Rousseff were members of communist guerrilla/terrorist groups, some of them being trained in Cuba and taking part in kidnapping, bank robberies, and such. They had the explicit intent of implementing a communist dictatorship in Brazil. When they failed to overthrow the state, they went the democratic way, eventually winning presidential elections in 2003 with Lula.

Since then, they have actively worked towards their goal of socialism and holding onto power, by buying the Congress (the process know as “Mensalão”) and nominating friends to the Supreme Court, for instance. They have also introduced members of foreign socialist regimes, such as Cuba and Venezuela, into the federal apparatus! There are “doctors” from Cuba, working for the Health Ministry, for instance. This also provides a “legal” way to send money to Fidel Castro. The government has sent BILLIONS to governments such in Africa, Cuba, Venezuela, while raising taxes across the board here.

Again, i can understand the position of foreign analysts. The empathize with Latin American governments because of their independent foreign police. That doesn’t mean they are good governments. I can also understand why Washington would be happy with what’s happening in Brazil, which tends to further consolidate people’s admiration for the Brazilian government. But make no mistake, even though Washington might be happy to undermine an “independent” government, that doesn’t mean Washington is the origin of the current manifestations and impeachment process. Indeed, it is a demand that comes from the common people, which have encountered exhaustive evidence of the wrongdoings of PT.

I hope people in the Saker community take their time to analyze what’s really going on, instead of just making surface judgments. I consider the Saker the go to place regarding Euro/Asian/North American politics, but when you publish such naive articles about Brazil and Latin America, you look like fools.

From an analysis of US actions (US elites, NSA, CIA, NGOs) in Honduras, Ecuador, Peru, Libya, Ukraine, Syria, Brazil, the EU (a totally captured vassal), in restarting the Cold War, in the US instigated rearming of Japan, just exactly who is looking like a fool?

What they are doing to Brazil they tried to do to Armenia (as though we haven’t suffered enough), the same subversive use of the corrupted to engineer their remote control.

Did you even read my post? I clearly stated that there is a duality between internal and foreign affairs in the case of Latin America. I don’t deny that the current “independent” government of Latin American nations is not to the liking of Washington, and that they are sympathetic to any opposition for this very reason. However, it is a non sequitur to conclude that, because of that, any “independent” government in Latin America is a good government. A government can be successful in maintaining its independency from imperial powers while having atrocious consequences for its domestic policy at the same time.

A hidden assumption in your critique is that an opposition government in Brazil would somehow reverse the current “independentist” policy and align with Washington, which I can tell you it’s not the case.

One thing I’d like to add is that when it comes to Russia, China, Eastern Europe, etc, these are all important pieces in world geopolitics, so much of their domestic affairs are actually related to foreign relations. However Brazil, and other LA countries are largely irrelevant, which is why there is not much friction from either side of the political spectrum. You cannot compare the degree of strategic importance that Europe/Nato and Japan/South Korea (China’s backyard) have for the US (who has China/Russia as its main antagonists) with the importance of Latin America. Consequently, the degree of investment and manipulation will be much higher in one situation compared to the other.

But my main point is that it’s a grave fallacy to try to project the world geopolitical conflict between Anglo Zionism vs Multipolarity into the internal government vs opposition in Brazil. Put it another way, the opposition is not “pro Anglo-Zionism”, even if it might be in the US interest to support their move at this moment.

“A hidden assumption in your critique is that an opposition government in Brazil would somehow reverse the current “independentist” policy and align with Washington, which I can tell you it’s not the case.”

This is EXACTLY what will happen. Unfortunately.

Brazil irrelevant?

You must be joking. Brazil is one of the most important suppliers for water, food, raw materials in the world. And the “lung of the earth”.

Being too “humble” is a dangerous thing. Ask Dilma.

I am – as an European – in Sao Paulo these days. I feel that the people are totally stirred up by the media. They want Dilma’s head because the media tells them that growth comes back “automatically” once Dilma is gone.

I said “irrelevant” in terms of geopolitics, not as a raw materials exporter. Brazil will keep exporting soybean, coffee, sugar, etc, no matter who is in power.

Also, you said we export “water”. Are you serious? Can you provide the number, of how much “water” we exported? This is ridiculous. If you know anything about Brazil, you would know that the Manaus metropolitan region, in the Amazon river basin, is one of the region that suffers the most with interruption in the supply of water! And they are in the middle of the world’s largest basin by volume! That’s how good of a government we have.

You said you’ve been in SP recently… Were you here in 2015, when we also had protests? Were you in 2014, when we had protest during the World Cup, which by the way cost over 30 billion BRL, that’s more than triple the original estimate, with some stadiums not being finished at all.

Were you here in 2013, when we had protests against the Mensalao and Petrolao scandals?

Do you even know that key members of the party, like co founder Helio Bicudo, have denounced the corruption practices within the government?

BR observer: that is some hogwash you are selling. I’m observing closely what has happened, from judges releasing tapes with political purposes to over 50 indicted on lavajato voting to remove dilma. I heard their arguments… for my family, for god. all of them where doing it to save their corrupt asses. fascists claiming the name of torturers. and, let us not forget the express trip to usa the next day. all bullshit. this coup had the same backups as always. globo was manipulating it completely wisible since the beginning. As usual, its a class war, and the 99% are loosing.

BR. You may be right but I can assure you Brazil will not be much better once the CIA guys take over your country. One thing is for sure you will not read that much negative in the media since these guys controll it but your country may become Another Mexico with lots of corruption, plenty of murders by criminal narcogangsters, more poverty but in the MSM you will hear only positive stuff. Good luck!

What makes you think the CIA will “take over ” the country? What evidence, exactly do you have of that? Remember we had a president that renounced to avoid being impeached (Fernando Collor) not so long ago, and nobody took over anything.

As for the media, it is controlled alright, but not the way you think. Much of the news about evidence found about corruption were censored by most media outlets, showing bias in favor of the government.

Also, it is the current Labour government that moved to restrict publicity contracts, which means media vehicles are now more dependent on government funding, and therefore, less independent.

Man, you are dishonest, aren’t you? The “terrorists” who you talk about were fighting against a right-wing, US-backed, military dictatorship, which overthrew a democratically elected president (not different to what’s happening now, is it?).
Moreover, they went “the democratic way” when the country went the democratic way. There has been no guerilla in Brazil since the end of the military regime.

The terrorists that i mention, including MArighella, had the EXPLICIT and CONFESSED goal of installing a communist dictatorship in Brazil, ala Cuba and China. The Labours PArty leaders, like Ruy Falcao and Jose Genoino and Dilma, were either leaders or had close connections to these guerrillas. That says a lot about intent.

Yes, they were marxist. What you “forgot” to say is that they were not fighting a liberal democracy, they were fighting a right-wing military dictatorship.
Now let me show you a list of people who were marxist in the 1970’s and 1980’s: Aloysio Nunes Ferreira, Fernando Gabeira, Olavo de Carvalho, Reinaldo Azevedo. Does it say a lot about intent?

US elites/NSA/CIA are drooling with delight at the prospect of subverting Brazil out of the BRICS. I was afraid that the US would counter-attack after being consumed for about a decade with the so-called war on terror, and with the addition of the escalating debt super cycle crisis the actions of the west betray a growing panic in the air.

They think they can create another century of western dominance of the world but they have lit the fuse for another cycle of world revolution in response to their plowing and plundering.

The Brazilian opposition is socialist? Really? Please, tell us you are joking. Eduardo Cunha is a religious conservative. PSDB, the main opposition party, supports regime change in Venezuela and labels Dilma as socialist, “bolivarian” and friend of dictators.

As a Brazilian from Paraná state, I can say that you are L-Y-I-N-G.
The “opposition” most absolutely is pro-ZUSA. They are all, to a man, neo-liberal sellouts and traitors to Brazil.
Many of them should long ago have been put in jail for life, for the many horrific crimes against the country that they committed, particularly during the 2 terms of FHC, one of the worst traitors to have ruled the country.
José Serra, Aécio Neves & co, all of these people are absolute scum and subservient poodles to ZUSA.

Your pathetic attempts to claim that the workers party is somehow “Communist” have been noted.
Your ridiculous description, without any context(the military dictatorship which overthrew the legal democratic civilian government), of how a few of the current PT members were former “terrorists”, is not only totally disingenuous, but in fact comes directly from the Bolsonaro playbook.
Jair Bolsonaro, who is also a crook, a coward and a sellout, just like the rest of them, only worse, despite his pretense at being a nationalist.
I say all this as a former nco in the army, with a grandfather who is a retired army colonel and an uncle who is also a career officer.
None of them share the false belief that the 64 coup was good for the country or that it saved it from “Communism”, since Goulart was no communist.
Unfortunately, there is a considerable number of scum in the military even today, who buy into this nonsense, excuse the dictatorship and its abuses, including torture.
They r usually american suck-ups.

You r fooling nobody, ‘br observer’. You clearly don’t even visit the saker much, cause if u did, u would know there are plenty of socialists and even hardcore communists who post here, therefore your ridiculous claims about Cuba and Communism simply revealed u, sir, as the troll you clearly are.

Oh Pepe how can the World Community put an END to another coup d’etat backed, once again, by the United States. Brazil has a very young and fragil democracy and we all need to help another catastrophe in such a beautiful country, with hard working people and much suffered, now giving its first steps to gain dignity and respect? Did you see this?
AmeriKKKa’s new puppet to rape Brazil … once again. Unable to arrest old criminals and another proof the United States is behind the coup d’etat.
Sergio Moro!http://time.com/4302096/sergio-moro-2016-time-100

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